


Psych 301 notes! <3

by BloodMooninSpace



Series: Berserker'verse [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - Sentinels & Guides, Berserker'verse, Gen, Parafic, Sentinel/Guide Bond interference, Sentinel/Guide Bonding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2018-05-02 12:45:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5248700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodMooninSpace/pseuds/BloodMooninSpace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If found, please return to Kate Heightmeyer! Leave it with the RA for the 2nd floor West Baxter Building!</p><p>Psych 301</p><p>** *** ** ***** ** *** **</p><p>Excerpted parafic from Dr. Heightmeyer's Psych 301 notebook, with some extras thrown in for fun!</p><p>(She’s 19, and it’s the 80’s, if you’re looking for a little context time-wise)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lecture Notes: Dealing with Daemons

It shouldn’t have to be said -- daemons are personal, don’t touch, don’t ask personal questions. Don’t ask what a person's parent’s daemon is.

Have a spacious office, big enough for the larger Daemons. 

Don’t whine if a daemon sits on the furniture. 

DO PROFESSIONALS REALLY HAVE TO BE TOLD THIS???!! Like, I get that some people weren't raised to be polite, but I fear for my future profession if there are future psychotherapists sitting in the room with me who wouldn’t already be doing this stuff. For the first day, this stuff is pretty obvious. 

What’s Thursday’s lecture going to be, Daemon typing?


	2. Lecture Notes: Myths About Daemon Typing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Myths about Daemon typing
> 
> Wow. Called it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Art by the wonderful Vexbatch, thanks for taking my "well I would like to have been able to draw this chapter" so dearly to heart, thanks hun <3

** **

 

 

 

[ Image caption: While it is true that the only aquatic Daemons on record are those of strong Empaths who generally gain the use of their powers young, there are many myths about what a person's Daemon says about them. And the majority of them are WRONG.

Reptiles aren’t indicative of cold-blooded people.

Amphibians aren’t slimy people.

Foxes aren’t necessarily cunning.

Birds aren’t flighty (Duh, I would know)

 

here the notes cut off to a smattering of doodling of what can be presumed to be the Daemons in the classroom at hand. Her own Parrot is the first doodle, reports say that the basset hound was that of her instructor, and several other animals may well have been fellow students.]


	3. Interlude, 17 magazine excerpt

Daemon still Unsettled? Take this quiz to see what you'll settle as!

 

...

If your answers were mostly:

A) Feline! You are likely to be a feline Daemon! Predatory and fiercely independent, you go after what you want, but you never turn down the chance to bask in the sun for a mid afternoon pick-me-up nap! 

B) Canine! You're a pack animal at heart, and you get what you want best when working in a team. You know how to play nice with others, and you are fiercely loyal.

C) Avian! You've got lofty dreams, and your heart has wings! You may flutter in the breeze, but ultimately you are adaptable and farsighted, a real big picture kind of person!

D) Reptilian! You thrive in the face of adversity, and you live up to a challenge, be that life without legs, or brutal desert climates. You're the person we want on our side when the going gets tough, and life dries out.

E) Amphibious! You are a very balanced person, able to move between groups. You know how to take care of yourself, and how survive the social equivalents of a hard winter. You're resilient, and you'll always survive what life throws your way.

...

Next Months Quiz: What is your soulmate's Daemon?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm weirdly *super* proud of this bit ...


	4. In-class written chapter response; Daemons, Unsettled.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry Professor Stein, I may have gotten a little carried away?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Professor Stein looked over the classroom, at the disorganized students, most of whom hadn't bothered to bring their textbooks to class today. 
> 
> Stein clapped his hands, rubbing his palms briskly. 
> 
> "Alright class! Since you are all good students and read the chapter before you came to class, you will have no problem drafting a chapter responds immediately. In pen, please. We will be taking a short break at 11, after which we will begin discussing the riveting opinions you have on this chapter."

Daemons ‘Settle’ as an animal at some point in a person's life, generally sometime in their teens. While some children have been documented having Settled Daemons as young as 5 years of age, that is extremely rare. Most Daemons Settle when a person is between the ages of 11 and 18, with few exceptions.

 

The most glaring exception, is persons with Mutable Personalities. Often the victims of emotional abuse, or instability in their childhood home, if these persons never gain a solid sense of self, their daemon can shift and change as their perceptions of the self changes. Because of this, it has been posited that the DSRM entry for Multiple Personality Disorder  should be changed to include a change in Daemon as a diagnostic requirement, but the study done by PAXTON in ‘86 indicates that of the 76 participants with Mutable Daemons, only 11 had Multiple Personalities. The vast majority of persons over 21 with Unsettled Daemons are those with a childlike perspective on the world, with an overwhelming 72 percent of the participants (55 in total) being persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder, or Down's Syndrome.

 

Further examination of the infamous Paxton study shows that while a majority of his subjects with Unsettled Daemons over the age of 21 were persons with either Autism or Down’s Syndrome, it must be noted that the overwhelming majority of persons with these conditions, have Daemons that Settle. One of the most notable instances would be Temple Grandin and her Daemon, a steer.

 

Children whose Daemons have Settled young, like many other child “prodigies” are often under tremendous pressure to act like an adult, act older than their age. Like child prodigies, their advanced skills at a young age are not indicative of a lifetime of advanced skills.

 

One of the most famous cases of a Mutable Daemon (Mutable Daemons being Daemons that change shape at will, as opposed to Unsettled Daemons, whose changes in shape are erratic and uncontrollable) is the case of Frank Abagnale, known master forger and con artist extraordinaire. The documented, stable, forms of his Daemon include a German Shepherd when he was impersonating law enforcement, a falcon when he was acting the part of a pilot, a nightingale when he was a doctor, and a small lizard when he was a lawyer. These forms were stable, and settled when he was in his various guises, and far from this being an isolated incident, several other career con artists have been documented with Mutable Daemons.

 

This is not a widespread ability, and further examination of the case files suggests that there may be a commonality between these persons when it comes to their ability to adapt themselves to the situation. A change of self they can believe in?

 

It is my theory that these persons are in fact, capable of a level of self-deception in a magnitude that allows for a change in Daemon’s form, and in an Einsteinian Aristolian “you are what you repeatedly do” fashion, they so remake themselves.

 

Right. Unsetted Daemons vs Mutable Daemons. That’s what we were being graded on for our chapter notes, right? I think I made the difference clear?

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Professor Stein: This might be a good topic for your midterm paper, Kate. You have a good grasp on the material, if a bit rambling and disjointed in places. I look forward to reading the final copy if you choose to use it for your first research paper.
> 
>  
> 
> A/N: Temple Grandin and Frank Abagnale. If you don’t know who they are, then I would advise a quick google of each of them. They both dramatically impacted the way the world works today!


	5. Husks, Discussion Notes, ie: my classmates are idiots.

The nature of the Daemon is a befuddling thing to the scientific mind. For the creatures exist not in any biological or measurable capacity. They exist not in bone, flesh, and fur, but in spirit and energy alone. They defy Newtonian physics,  _ being at once expressed in particle and wave simultaneously; _ their existence cannot be doubted. They give all appearances of being an extension of the human soul itself.

 

It is a most worrying thing to see a person without their Daemon. The absence of a Daemon is no standalone disorder: it is an indicator of a grievously serious underlying condition. There is no person sound of mind and worthy of trust whose Daemon leaves their side.

 

\-- excerpt from Modern Science of Daemons, published in 1953

 

* * *

 

 

Husks, Discussion Notes, ie: my classmates are idiots.

 

No, Nate, Husks aren’t soulless. They have a compromised ability to manifest their Daemons, and seeing as we don’t fully understand the mechanics by which Daemons even exist, NO you can’t say for certain that All Husks Go To Hell. Thank you for that pithy witticism.

 

Audrey! You are woefully misinformed as to Empaths and their Daemons. The chapter clearly said that Empaths, categorically, can meditate and recover their Daemons. The first hand reports cited in the “recommended reading” in the chapter footnotes suggests that Empaths have access to some sort of Energy plane, a place where they find their Daemons, suggesting that the matter of Daemons and Husks is far more complicated than just “people are broken, so their Daemons disappear”. (Thanks for that eternal bit of wisdom Mark)

 

Husk is a slur, but we don’t actually have a neutral medical term for the condition? I know that “Manifestation Disorder” is the term first brought into widespread use when it was published in Grey’s Anatomy, but we need to find more clinical language! Manifestation Disorder is a catch-all, and a crude one at that. Might as well just say Husk, you’re thinking it anyway. 

 

When A Berserker is experiencing their first absence seizure, and their daemon disappears, that is an entirely different situation than when an Empath spends a few hours or even days waiting for their Daemon to return. 

 

Forced separations in natural disasters, or in other high octane situations are completely different from persons being abandoned by their Daemon, (as the common mythos would have you believe the Daemons of people who become Husks are wont to do) in fact, many notable sociopaths and psychopaths, Ted Bundy included, STILL HAD THEIR DAEMONS to the day they died!!

 

Honestly, have any of you done the chapter reading, let alone an ounce of extracurricular reading on our course material?

 

Gosh, Brian, “If we locked up all the husks we wouldn’t have any crime” !!!??!?!?!?!

 

Brian, you are aware that the single largest population of Husks in America is Berserkers, all of whom serve in a Federal capacity? They are conscripted to a lifetime of service, some dispatched to the FBI, CIA, but the vast majority serve in the US Armed Forces. 

 

We shamelessly use Husks to do our combat-related dirty work, and then blame them for civilian crime, despite the fact that Husks are more likely to be a victim of a hate crime, than they are to be a criminal: BARNES ‘87. 

 

No, Serena. Husks are not a sign that the gods are punishing us, and that if we took better care of the earth, and stopped the needless bloodshed of war … are you even listening to yourself?

 

THANK YOU PROFESSOR STEIN for getting us back on track. We are DISCUSSING the CHAPTER. Let’s keep it to the chapter and the additional reading guys. Not these street rumors and CARRIE would you quit citing this scholar Everybody? I know Mark and Brian are too, but just because “Everybody knows” doesn't make it true. 

  
  


Five more minutes of this and I am free to leave. 

 

I can handle five more minutes, right?   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Kate!”
> 
>  
> 
> “Yes Professor Stein?”
> 
>  
> 
> “I really admire how well constructed your arguments were today, and how you kept from using ad hominem attacks when I could tell you were very frustrated. Well done. You’ll learn the therapists pokerface soon enough, and you’ve already got a great filter, under quite a stressful situation at that. Keep up the good work!”


	6. Dangers posed to Empaths, tethering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry. The world is broken and everything hurts.

Excerpt from Pamphlet: Parenting a young empath, dangers and legal protections.

 

Published by CARE: Citizens Against Restricting Empaths

 

> Tethering is when a Berserker gets too close to an empath, and the unstable nature of the Berserker and a mind devoid of a Daemon, the Empath can form a dangerous bond with the Berserker, losing all of their own Autonomy. From that day forward, the Empath in question is doomed to the Berserkers shadow, unable to leave the Berserker or function independently.
> 
>  
> 
> This is a fate we are responsible to help protect Empaths from, as their Empathic nature can feel a “calling” from Berserkers. This has led to further legislation on the movements and freedoms of Berserkers, confining them to barracks thereby insulating them from civilian Empaths and protecting the Empaths from this crippling condition. 
> 
>  

* * *

 

So I get that this tethering thing, has people super concerned, but like, there are instances showing that these bonds can be broken? And on top of that, I don't know that "Crippling Condition" is a good set of terminology for this anomaly? 

 

For one thing, it doesn't always happen when a Berserker and an Empath are in proximity to each other, there seems to be a certain level of compatibility needed. I think this is an issue with a lot of paranoia and a lot of worries over a concern that is far from imminent.  


	7. Size Classifications of Daemons

I DON’T LIKE THESE CLASSIFICATIONS, I mean:

  
  


> Passenger: Daemons small enough that need to be carried
> 
> Domestic: Larger than Passenger, small enough to share a seat on public transit
> 
> Companion: Too large for a lap, small enough to fit in a chair
> 
> Predator: Bigger, but small enough not to require forethought to transport
> 
> Mammoth: Big enough to require workplace considerations and forethought to transport. 
> 
>   
>    
> 

I don’t like the classifications. I really don’t. We are classifying a being that we understand to be an extension of the soul by their size and inconvenience, and it just strikes me as wrong wrong WRONG. 

 

It seems like a sort of -- classicism. It is dividing us, in an era where we have been through civil rights campaigning for gender and race, why should we be labeling out daemons? Why should we be training people to sort our population by another arbitrary line? Deer and Ostriches qualify as Predator Daemons, which is just really grody and counterintuitive. 

 

I understand why these classifications are so popular, they are great buzzwords for real estate and tech companies to use, but with the nomenclature there is bias. Predator and Mammoth are both words that are loaded with connotations, words that are so evocative that they have a person emotionally reacting to an impression as soon as they have heard the word. 

 

Professor Stein. If I had the ability to change the system, we can keep all of the utility, while stripping away the cognitive bias in the labels if we switched to a numerical category system:

 

Category One: Daemons small enough that need to be carried

Category Two: Larger than Passenger, small enough to share a seat on public transit

Category Three: Too large for a lap, small enough to fit in a chair

Category Four: Bigger, but small enough not to require forethought to transport

Category Five: Big enough to require workplace considerations and forethought to transport. 

 

The system is the same in technical function, but the labels of “Class Two Daemon” or “Category Two Daemon” is far less visceral. The nomenclature feels scientific, instead of prejudicial. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ms Heightmeyer, your insights are brilliant, and are worth forwarding along to some colleagues I have.
> 
>  
> 
> Prof Stein


End file.
